A PETITION calling for action to force Australia’s Cardinal George Pell to stand down has just been launched by victims’ advocacy group COIN, which claims that Pell has failed the country’s five million Catholics as a religious and moral leader. The petition – addressed to to papal nuncio Archbishop Paul Gallagher – says:

Cardinal Pell is a spiritually impotent leader, a leader who presents no empathy, no moral judgment and no felt deep concern for victims, a leader who is avoiding responsibility for the immorality and sodomy that has been breeding in his house of God.

It is time for the Roman Catholic Church in Australia to change, and the starting point is for Cardinal George Pell to stand down. He is part of the problem, not the solution.

Cardinal Pell, left, takes time off from answering awkward child sex abuse questions to go shopping for a new outfit with a buddy

The demand follows an earlier petition launched last month by Sydney Catholic Bishop Geoffrey Robinson calling for a global church council to tackle the scourge of clergy sexual abuse. This has passed 81,000 signatures.

Bishop Robinson said on Sunday that he was happy with the response

But we’ve only been going a few weeks, and this is just the beginning.

COIN president Bryan Keon-Cohen, QC, said the petition reflected community sentiment that the church continued to focus on damage control rather then fundamental reform.

It also reflects the community’s view that George Pell’s time has passed. Whatever good or bad he has done, he appears incapable of coming to terms with the enormity of the problem and the need for change in the Catholic Church.

He added that Pell believes only in the standing and reputation of his church, and fails to understand that things have changed.

It’s a culture that says the church can do no wrong, and must be protected above all else – a mediaeval doctrine that has no place in modern society.

Meanwhile, Father Ike MacCreadie – spokesperson for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York – came clean about his Church’s global paedophile goals to an investigative reporter in the video below (click on pic to watch the astonishing interview).

There is a mistaken notion among many that the Roman Catholic Church is a democratic organization, in which petitions and other forms of voting hold sway. The smallest examination of their own religion’s theology or history will reveal they, like most theists, believe what they want to believe and the devil take the facts.

At the same time, pressure outside the RCC (and outside all religions) does work. The US government tells the Mormons they can’t have plural marriage or forbid black men from being leaders – hey presto, they get a revelation revealing the same. The world rejects slavery – alakazam, religions that formerly supported it now claim to be the vanguard against it.

So keep up the pressure, all you petition signers, but join us on the outside where the actual work gets done.

Trevor Blake: I think the RC Church has had such unquestioned power for so long that they resent any attempt to hold them to account. Even to suggest what they are doing is wrong, never mind criminal, is regarded as lese-majesty.

This unrestrained arrogance is encouraged by the C. of E.,pusillanimous to the last, looking away. Their own hands are not too clean, of course. And, as usual, the BBC offers the RC Church a regular, license fee funded, platform to preach as if it was an ethical organisation and the audience saw it as such.

George Pell is a constant source of amusement here in Australia. I really think he’s actually a parody, a bit like Father Ted in that funny TV show. But Pell is even funnier for two reasons, firstly he’s a cardinal and secondly, quite serious about his actions and beliefs. It’s always a giggle when he’s described by the media as being a catholic intellectual. Talk about a contadiction. This is a bloke who believes the god/jesus/holy spook nonsense sincerely and is quite happy to wolf down bits of the baby jesus and swig on the dead jew’s blood in church on Sunday. He apparently really believes he’s magic enough to turn the wine and crackers into the tasty edible jesus by muttering some Latin nonsense. The sooner he’s put out to pasture, the better.

Trevor Blake/jay: Quite right. And what about the position of women, about which the Bible is unequivocal? We now have women priests and will soon see women bishops, as “God” has presumably changed his mind on that as well. As he has about homosexuals, who will soon be being married in churches rather than stoned to death, because their holy book’s clear instructions on the subject have now been “reinterpreted”. So much for “absolute values” providing a “rock” while the rest of the world flounders in a quagmire of moral uncertainty!

Betty, you’re a hundred percent correct. Apart from expecting people to believe nonsense and behave in a hateful, bigoted manner, they expect their punters to be happy with the jesus flavour wine and wafers and I think that part explains the rapid decline in numbers attending churches in civilised countries. I’m told it’s been that way for a long time, they need Saint Jamie Oliver to get involved and create a new, enticing menu. They could include various things to represent the deciples, who seem to have been completely forgotten. Salads and dips are a start, they could whip up a Cream of Dogma soup on cold days and finish up with a Glazed Deciples Dessert with hot slime. The churches could get those electronic near field devices installed and the happy punters would be charged via phone or card, invisibly (they’d be used to that) as they walk in and if they eat, charged again on the way out. For the kids and to make it more Family Friendly, they need to offer a no alcohol alternative. If they want to go with the blood analogy, I’d suggest rasberry. Cranberry would be good too.